Wednesday, February 01, 2006
The Tai Full Course
OK, now that we have prepared our fish, let's take care of the Tai full course.
Here, I’ll give you some ideas for a complete Japanese course. The dishes are separated and classified according to the different ways of cooking. Usually each portion is quite small, but there are a lot of different dishes. We start with a little appetizer, then we’ll have raw food, grilled food, baked food, boiled food, rice, pickled vegetable, soup, etc. As much as possible, we always try to choose seasonal ingredients (today, it's a Tai).
-Tai Sashimi (raw fish) and Cucumber with Karashi Sumiso sauce* (vinegrated Miso with mustard)
Cut off the stomach bones and cut the meat into half.
Cut off the bones and peel the skin off.
Slice the meat for Sashimi and Sushi.
Tai no Sashimi.
*Sumiso:
Shiro Miso: 30g
Rice vinegar: 1/2 table spoon
Sugar: 1/3 table spoon
Mustard: 1/2 table spoon.
-Tai Sushi
Using the same sliced pieces, I made some Tai Sushi. The pieces of fish for Sashimi (raw fish) are cut differently from the ones for Sushi (raw fish over vinegrated rice), but I made my life easier this time (don’t tell my teacher).
-Tai no Mushimono (boiled sea bream)
With the fillets, I used the lower parts for Sushi and Sashimi, and kept the back parts with the skin on for this dish.
Here is a small technic: Place some kitchen paper on the fillets and poor boiled water over them. Then, cool them down with cold running water and clean the surface.
This way, the beautiful skin can be kept on. By the way, we can also make Sushi with these fillets.
1. Cut the meat in 3-4 pieces, put some salt on and leave them for 10 minutes.
2. In a gratin plate, put a bit of seaweed, then place the pieces of Tai on top.
Poor one table spoon of Sake. Wrap with a vinyl sheet (film) and put it to cook in a wave-oven for a few minutes.
3. Poor one table spoon of vinegar and Shoyu over the Tai. 
Et voila, Tai no Mushimono with some spinach.
- Tai no Kabuto Shio Yaki (grilled sea bream head with salt)
The Tai has a big head and it contains a lot of meat — of course, we cook it as well. 
Cut the head into two. The Tai head is very hard and it is necessary to be careful not to cut fingers at the same time. If you position your knife at the right place, in between the front teeth, it is easier to cut the head into two halves.
Cut off the gill and wash it.
Dip the head in boiled water. Then put some salt over it and grill it.
Here is our Tai no Kabuto Shio Yaki
- Tai no Suimono (sea bream soup)
Cut the fins and tail off, clean the bone part, and cut the bone in 4 or 5 pieces. 
Pass theses in hot water until the meat starts to turn white, then take them out and remove as much of the water as possible.
1. Boil 4 cups of Dashi (fish soup stock) with the fish bones in.
2. Add 1 tea spoon of salt, 1 table spoon of Sake, 1/2 tea spoon of Shoyu (Soja sauce).
Here is my Tai no suimono.
- Tai no Kawa Yaki (grilled sea bream skin)
This is a kind of option. It's usually not served in a restaurant. However, the skin contains a lot of vitamins and it tastes quite good. During the cooking class, we ate them each time we had a chance. 
Peel the skin off and put it around a barbecue stick.
Put some salt on and grill them over the fire.
Here is our dinner.
This Tai costs Yen 1,260 and after preparing three servings, I still had some meat left. It's quite cheap, very healthy and so delicious.
Bon appetit!
